New program at The James explains cancer diagnoses in family to children

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — When someone is diagnosed with cancer, sometimes the hardest part is telling their friends and family about the diagnosis, especially people with children in their lives.

A new program at The James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State is helping kids deal with the diagnosis of a loved one.

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The hospital can be a scary place and cancer is a scary disease, so child life specialists at The James work with children of all ages to break down what is happening to their parent, grandparent or another loved one.

Child life specialist Brianna Wall said they always start with a conversation with the patient.

“We really start with assessment, to talk with each patient about what their concerns are for their children, maybe it’s their grandchildren, nieces, nephews and then tailor some intervention specific to that family and what they need,” Wall said.

When meeting with children, Wall said every session looks different depending on a child’s age and understanding of the disease.

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“Sometimes it’s just really basic when we’re working with toddlers and preschoolers that your parent has a sickness and we try to talk about it being a big sick,” she said. “It’s something different than a cold or a flu. Once they’re a little bit older and maybe they understand, we’ll talk about cells and how cancer is caused by changes that happen in the body.”

Wall said kids with parents or other loved ones who have cancer often overhear words they don’t understand like chemo, imaging, cells and symptoms. She said a lot of her job is giving the children context.

“Sometimes it means doing medical play with sample medical equipment and dolls,” Wall said. “Sometimes it means making individualized books to prepare a child for coming to bedside of what they’ll see, what their person looks like.”

Wall said many of her sessions end up looking like play, but sometimes she said that is the best way to help a child understand what cancer is and how it’s affecting a person they love – from hair loss to tubes on the body for medication and intubation.

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“These are heavy topics, but the way that we deliver information doesn’t have to be in a solemn way,” she said. “Sometimes it’s silly and sometimes it doesn’t look like we are doing too much, but we’re educating and we’re normalizing.”

Ohio State said The James is one of the only hospitals in the country that offers a program to help support children of adult patients.

For more information about how the program works, click here. For more general information about cancer diagnosis and treatment at The James, click here.

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